The House passed a bill to re—fund Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) which would have contained some protections for the children at the border. The Senate passed its own bill first, however. Blessed both by Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer, the Senate bill contained no protections but a lot of money with conditions that could easily be broken when the money – taxpayer money, your money and my money -- is spent.
Then the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, was confronted by a group of Representatives who insisted on passing only the Senate bill when it came to the House for a vote. (Senator McConnell refused to take a vote in the Senate on the House bill.) The group is called “the Problem Solvers” caucus. Half of its members are Republicans, and half describe themselves as Democrats. One of their co-chairs is Rep. Josh Gottheimer from New Jersey.
Speaker Pelosi decided that she had no leverage and caved on the bill which the House had already passed, in favor of the Senate bill which Rep. Gottheimer and his caucus insisted was the only bill they would vote for now.
That is how the House of Representatives passed the Senate bill as the law of the land with no conditions restricting how the current federal government spends the ICE money, whether to build a wall, or build or destroy something else, their choice.
Representative Gottheimer and his caucus are interesting stories. Mr. Gottheimer was first elected to Congress in 2016. He represents a district that had previously elected Republicans for more than 20 years. During his short time in the House, he has represented Republicans although he registers as a Democrat. “He has consistently voted against the party even on procedural motions, threatening to hand control over the House to the GOP.” Ryan Grim, The Democratic Counterrevolution Has a Self-Appointed Leader: Josh Gottheimer, THE INTERCEPT online May 8, 2019.
During a hearing in April of the House Financial Services Committee, on which he currently serves, Mr. Gottheimer was careful to present the Wall Street side of how they actually do good for their customers. The Chair of the Committee, Rep. Maxine Waters, called the hearing “Holding Megabanks Accountable.” Representative Gottheimer’s idea of holding megabanks accountable was to ask Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase whether Dimon could talk about “the work that your firm has done in the small-business lending arena and how those loans are helping to facilitate small-business growth.” So, in Gottheimer’s mind, that is holding megabanks accountable.
Mr. Gottheimer has voted with much the same view against holding Saudi Arabia to account for its activities in Yemen, activities in which thousands of innocent civilians – men, women, and children too – have lost their lives at the hands of the Saudis. Despite that, and despite the dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi at the hands of Saudi Arabia’s monarchy, Mr. Gottheimer not only voted against the initial House resolution based on the War Powers Act to demand that the current federal government stop supporting the Saudi’s war in Yemen. He actively worked against it, essentially declaring according to reports that a vote for the resolution would be a vote against Israel. (I don't know how a vote for the resolution to stop U.S. assistance to Saudi war-making in Yemen could possibly be twisted into a vote against Israel, but I am not the one who said so in the first place.)
The resolution eventually was passed in both the House and the Senate (it was ultimately vetoed). However, Mr. Gottheimer’s opposition as a so-called Democrat was not welcome. “This is a thing that he’s doing consistently, helping to organize against progress,” as Elizabeth Beavers described Gottheimer’s conduct on the War Powers resolution. Ms. Beavers was Associate Policy Director of Indivisible at the time.
Disappointing, perhaps, but Representative Gottheimer’s attempt to intervene in the House on behalf of Saudi Arabia should not have come as a surprise. Mr. Gottheimer is reportedly among the top 20 recipients of Saudi money who serve in Congress, whether Republican or Democrat. However, the top 20 includes many leaders and legislators who have been in Congress long before 2016, when Mr. Gottheimer arrived. “Nobody as junior as Gottheimer comes anywhere close.” Grim, The Self-Appointed Leader: Josh Gottheimer, supra.
Josh Gottheimer’s New Jersey district changed hands when the federal government changed hands, in 2016. An official of Indivisible who supported him in that election, says “we just want him to meet us halfway and act like a normal Democrat who believes in the party.” Quoted in Grim, The Self-Appointed Leader: Josh Gottheimer, supra.
Still waiting.
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